The Participation and Integration Act by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia entered into force in the beginning of 2012, after the first application for such an Act was brought in 2004. The Act provides a binding basis for promoting participation and integration and is intended to secure and improve the integration policy infrastructure in North Rhine-Westphalia. In § 1, it mentions nine goals, such as combating racism and discrimination against individual groups and further intercultural opening of the state administration.

The Act enabled the creation of municipal integration centres in all 54 independent towns and districts in the state and provided the municipalities with financial resources, in the form of the integration allowance, to strengthen their integration work.

The Act does not name any Positive Action measures, nor does the explanatory memorandum to the Act contain any reference to considering or including Positive Action measures. The same applies to the report published in 2016. There is also no reference to the AGG.

The Landtag (State parliament) declared in the explanatory memorandum to § 1 of the law: "The aim is to increase the proportion of people with a migration background in public service and to promote the intercultural competence of state employees. The public service is to be further developed with a corresponding catalogue of measures. It should reflect the changed social reality in North Rhine-Westphalia" (quoted from the report, p. 41). However, the draft does not provide more detailed information on the aforementioned catalogue of measures, on the procedure, the planning of the measures, or a more precise presentation of possible measures.